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Congress just created a crises.  They were given the opportunity to remove a law that mandates a 21 percent reduction in MEDICARE and TRICARE payments that is effective in January 2010.  What this means is that a physician treating a MEDICARE patient will get paid over twenty percent less that in the past.  This action alone will create a major crises in American healthcare.

Most doctors are not paid enough now.  I interviewed one physician who claims that he barely breaks even with MEDICARE patients.  Another insisted that he actually lost money on Medicare patients, because they tend to be sicker than the average patient and need more time than the average 15 minutes he spends with other patients.   Both of these doctors say that the will stop seeing Medicare patients when the reduction becomes effective.

The failure of Congress to act occurred despite lobbying by many veterans organizations, and The  American Medical Association.  How can our elected representatives be so dense?  The concept of lowering payments to doctors assumes that:

(1) they charge unfairly high prices;

(2) they have enough financial leverage due to payments from insurance companies that they can treat seniors free of charge;

(3) the insurance companies are paying them generously and without hassle.

None of those assumptions are true.  The reality is that physicians are one of the least lucrative professions, above teachers and policemen, but far behind bankers and financiers, and congress (with their extensive healthcare insurance).

One trouble with congress is that they have a short memory.  Congress held extensive hearings during the 1960s into the health insurance situation for our senior citizens.  Insurance companies had begun to drop policies of older Americans.  Insurance companies testified that they did not want to insure seniors because their care cost too much.  Finally, congress passed Medicare.  It was not envisioned that Medicare would be financially profitable.  Numerous times in the decades since, congress  passed revisions of Medicare to cut costs.  Numerous times our government revised the rules because physicians would refuse to take Medicare patients.

It is time for congress to wake up and at least sponsor a “professional” unbiased study of doctor’s fees.  They will find many physicians struggle to maintain a marginally profitable business.

Years ago, when I lost my eldest son, an insurance agent asked me to decide what he was worth.  The insurance industry at the time had guidelines that centered upon earning power.  The policy coverage of the driver who hit my son set the maximum at $250,000.  I pondered the question and I answered that my son was priceless.  But the question remains:  What is a human being worth?  What are you worth?

I believe that the question of the value of human life is very relevant for the current health care debate in congress.  One member of congress recently observed that 22  thousand people die each year from a lack of health insurance.  The Institute of Medicine claims that more than 40 million Americans (including 10 million children) do not have health insurance.  Why don’t they have insurance?

Most of those without insurance either cannot afford it or have been rejected by insurance companies due to existing health conditions.  And despite rumors, at least 85 percent of the uninsured are American citizens, and 80 percent are from working families.  Some of the uninsured had insurance until their employer dropped the policy or they lost their job (an increasing number due to our financial crises).

About the uninsured, note that a large number of them work in jobs that make our lives easier and more convenient, the service industries (fast foods, restaurants, maintenance workers, medical staff).  Many of these people are economically poor but very hardworking.  What are these people worth?

Then we have the under insured.  These are people with health insurance, but who have rapidly mounting debt because of:  “copay”, deductibles, and costs that insurance companies do not recognize (sometimes more than 25 percent of the bill).  I have friends with more than $75,000 in medical debts.  I know people who have lost their homes because of high medical bills.  Many of these under-insured people are teachers, police officers, firemen, and small business workers and owners.  What are the under insured worth?

Personally, I have grown weary of the healthcare debate.  I am biased as I believe in the value of human life.  I am biased because I feel great sympathy for people who suffer unnecessarily.  I am biased because I value people more than money.  I just would not be comfortable making millions of dollars each year from the unrelieved pain and suffering of my fellow citizens.  I am biased because I abhor the idea of wealthy insurance companies getting billions of dollars to support a healthcare program.    I am biased because I believe that the most important task for the U.S. Congress is passing into law a bill that will relieve the pain of our people.